


Nick Of Time

by DGCatAniSiri



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Time Force
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25984177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: What should be done with the remains of the clock tower?
Relationships: Wesley "Wes" Collins/Eric Myers
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Nick Of Time

They passed by the ruins of it every day. 

Eric knew they should simply take a different route to the Silver Guardians HQ, but Wes insisted. 

As much as he thought that it was a mistake, Eric couldn’t help it. He had a soft spot for Wes. Always had. He’d done what he could to bury it back in the old days when they were at odds, but Wes had always seen through it. Since they’d become partners – first in command of the Silver Guardians, then the shift between them to lovers – Eric had been more willing to be open about it. Still, he didn’t like the look of sorrow that Wes had every time they passed the remains of the clock tower.

After the explosion – after Ransik’s forces were defeated for good – Mr. Collins had let Wes decide what to do with it. In all practical matters, it was effectively Wes’s more than his, after all, he’d said. For that whole year that they’d fought Ransik and the mutants, it had been the Time Force Rangers’ home. To date, Wes had simply left it alone, not wanting to sort through the various memories that were held within, charred and burnt beyond recognition.

The city hadn’t been happy about leaving the clock tower as it was, considering it a damaged property, likely to collapse and harm anyone who might be in the area when it did. But the remains had been left, at least for the time being – there was an understanding that the moment someone got hurt, Mr. Collins would incur all the damages, with an unspoken agreement that he’d push Wes to actually do something with the location.

Of course, the Collins’ family was notoriously stubborn, and Wes was, to no surprise, digging in his heels. Wes had yet to budge on touching the remains of the clock tower, and Eric had been indulging him in driving past it every morning.

He really should stop. And yet... It was something that connected Wes to his friends, the friends who had left the 21st century behind, and who, at this point, Wes would only ever see in a crisis. The Mut-Orgs had been an emergency, but Time Force had no particular desire to see their resources used for social calls. Alex had been the one to gently discourage him from trying to make it a regular thing, calling on any of the other Time Force team just to chat.

But, about a month after the mission to the moon, dealing with Serpentera, Eric knew that things had to change. As they passed the clock tower one morning, something in the tower remains caught Eric’s eyes. It was as if he had picked up on some of Trip’s Xybrian talents and had a premonition. 

He – and, because he was driving, Wes as well – had his eye drawn to the remains of the clock tower in the moments before something within gave. What was left of the tower proper collapsed in on itself. The two Rangers could only stare as the burnt out husk of the clock tower fell in on itself.

Immediately they hopped out of the car, ready to see if anyone had been hurt – despite the fact that the building was, for all practical purposes, condemned, that never stopped anyone who was determined to sneak in, maybe snag a piece of Power Rangers history. The other Power Rangers they’d spoken to had talked about people who sought out all sorts of souvenirs and tokens of the various battles they’d had over the years. 

Always struck Eric as vultures, picking at the bones, especially considering that most such ‘souvenirs’ were from battles that had caused devastation and chaos, to say nothing of the occasions like the clock tower, the destruction of what had been the home of the respective Rangers and the place they’d lived. At that point, it was like strangers coming along and stripping the site of a house fire. 

A brief sweep, though, showed no sign of any living inhabitant, be they would-be vulture or someone who’d attempted to get in to the tower and use it as shelter. Eric could see the relief in Wes’s slump as they confirmed that the clock tower had been empty.

Still, Eric knew that now was the time to make an issue of the matter. “You know, something really needs to be done about this place. Can’t just leave it like this. Next time something gives like that, it could seriously hurt someone. Or worse.” 

Anyone else would have taken his comment as a pointed remark that the clock tower, for whatever it had been, the memories it had held previously, was now little more than a hazard for others to stumble upon and be hurt – or killed – by it falling to pieces. But Wes could parse Eric’s manner better than anyone else. He could pick up on the concern that Eric would never voice.

“I should have done something with this place much sooner, huh?” Wes said, the look on his face indicating that he knew arguing that would be pointless. There was a line of people who’d be quick to give him a very forceful ‘yes.’

But, blunt as he tended to be, Eric wasn’t one of them. “Understood why,” he said, looking around what had been the main lobby. He had to half talk himself out of checking to see if there were the remains of any Cyclobots in the wreckage still – between Time Force and the Silver Guardians, the place had certainly been stripped of the remnants of any of Ransik’s forces. Still, the thought was there for a moment. The place was... 

Well, it looked like it had been rocked by an explosion that had torn through the place and what hadn’t been blown apart had been burnt to ash and cinders.

Sighing, Wes looked around the place, and... 

Uh oh. Eric knew that look. Wes was getting An Idea. That could never end well. 

“You know... My dad said I could do what I wanted with this place.”

“Uh huh...” Eric knew he shouldn’t indulge Wes in this, but it wasn’t like that had ever stopped him before. Or motivated him to try and stop Wes, however you looked at it.

There was a gleam in Wes’s eye, as if he was seeing visions of something pass in front of him. “We could fix this place up...”

“We?”

“...I mean, it wouldn’t be easy. Fixing up the clock tower would definitely involve a dedicated work crew and everything...”

“We?”

“...but at least here on the ground floor, it could be our project, at least until they rebuilt the upper levels to where we could put it together...”

“We?”

Wes, not having heard anything that Eric had said, turned back to him, a wide grin on his face, as if his idea were reality. “It’d be perfect!” he exclaimed, sounding very proud indeed. 

Eric said nothing, letting his skeptical eyebrow speak volumes to Wes about his brilliant idea.

“What’s wrong, Eric?” Wes asked, completely undaunted. He didn’t even seem to register Eric’s face as he was piecing together Wes’s likely hare-brained idea.

Finally, Eric admitted to the defeat of his stoicism and went ahead with indulging Wes in this. He sighed. “You’re talking about fixing up the clock tower.”

“Yeah!” As if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “In fact...” 

Oh no. Now he was on a roll of ideas.

Wes moved to the door, where, beyond all expectation, aside from a layer of soot and ash, the sign declaring “Nick of Time Odd Jobs” was still intact. Wes gave it a quick and casual swipe to clear off the mess. “We could even reopen the business!”

Eric loved Wes. He truly did. Wes was one of the few people Eric had ever met who actually did genuinely put up with his bullshit – Eric was self-aware enough to admit that he put his lover through a lot of it with his own stubbornness and attitude. He might not stop himself – if it were even possible – but he could admit his own faults, chief among them genuinely being that he often had to prove himself right more often than he actually was right. 

But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t call out this craziness for what it was. “You’re saying you, what, want to give up your position as Commander of the Silver Guardians, and to drag me along for the ride, so you can be the planet’s richest temp?”

“Well, okay, you put it like that and it sounds stupid, but...” For half a second, Eric had managed to get through the various walls of Wes’s eternal optimism, but that didn’t last (and, truthfully, Eric had no desire to see the day it did). “Look, the Silver Guardians... They don’t actually need US, specifically. They can practically run themselves by now. Commander Tate could probably do as good of a job leading them as either of us.”

He had a point there. The Silver Guardians had been needed during Ransik’s time. They rarely needed to morph anymore, doing it more for show than because they needed the protection offered by being in the Ranger uniform. Aside from the Mut-Orgs and Serpentera, Eric couldn’t really think of when they’d been needed. Sure, they often went into situations morphed, but it was usually an intimidation matter – once the Power Rangers appeared, that pretty much put a halt to most of the desire to fight the Silver Guardians. Them being involved in matters as Power Rangers... It wasn’t particularly necessary. 

That was, Eric supposed, reason for Wes to feel restless enough to want to restart this business. He’d taken on his role among the Silver Guardians for a handful of reasons – to support his father, now that they had reconciled, to take up the banner of defending the city as he had done as a member of the Time Force team, to be close to Eric – but that didn’t mean that he believed in it, as a mission.

Which... Did the Silver Guardians really even have a ‘mission’? Sure, guard the city, but... Ever since they’d transitioned from private security to a supplementary defense organization, the Silver Guardians’ only mandate was to defend the city. There was no direct, specific purpose for them. And really, they were only going to lose their need over time, unless there was a dramatic shift.

On top of all that... Eric had, once upon a time, taken Wes’s enthusiasm and willingness to get down and in the trenches with those who were doing the hard work as condescension. As the rich boy slumming it to later share with his rich friends, who’d have a good laugh about the way that the poors did things. 

He knew better now. That was all genuine. That was who Wes was. Wes was focused on doing the little things to help others, the things that would brighten even just one person’s day that little bit. Leave all this to Wes, he’d reopen Nick of Time Odd Jobs and wouldn’t charge a cent – he could live comfortably on his father’s money, and was more than willing to share the wealth.

People like Wes were rare indeed. More importantly, they were more valuable than all the money in the world.

And, in the end, that was why Eric struggled with the concept of saying ‘no’ to him. He was so sincere. So genuine. Eric had fallen in love with that sincerity, that desire to truly do good. He actually made Eric want to give him the world, when Eric knew what it was to be without. 

So he actually wanted to do this for Wes. Of course, to just come straight out and say as much... well, that wouldn’t really be fitting for him, would it?

“You want to give up a job protecting the city to go clean up garbage and paint walls?” he asked.

Wes laughed. “It’d be helping people. And in a more tangible way than the Silver Guardians. You actually get to see people react to knowing that you did something that made their day a little bit better.”

“Because they’re paying you.” Eric wondered why he had to search for the storm cloud attached to the silver lining so desperately. A mystery for another day, as always. 

Again, Wes didn’t seem to be fazed at all by Eric’s negativity. “Okay, yeah, there’s that, but... I mean we did more than a few jobs more for what they did for people, not the money. I mean... I could easily just live on my dad’s money if I was concerned about that.” A fact he’d proven more than once, after all. 

As Wes did another small circuit of the lobby, he seemed to grow serious, the smile fading so that he was giving Eric a look at the raw and genuine emotion he was feeling. “Eric... I want to help people. And, be honest... How much are we really helping right now? Because I feel like a glorified cop handing out parking tickets. That’s not enough for me.”

And... Eric could see his point. He’d already thought over how the Silver Guardians weren’t being the active and genuine help to people in need any more – their needs weren’t ‘defend them from the big bad mutants.’ It was ‘make my little corner of the world a little brighter.’

Really... Did Eric have a reason to say no?

“I suppose we could... call it more detached leave. If the Silver Guardians need assistance from the Power Rangers, we could still be on call, while... doing this.” Anyone else would probably have taken his words as grudging. As him reluctantly going along with the idea, more for Wes’s sake than because he believed in the idea.

But Wes knew Eric well enough – Eric was selective in his words. If he said he was going to do something, he was committing himself. He would be there. His word was his bond. So hearing Eric voice that he was on board, Wes broke into a wide grin. “Really?”

Eric sighed, and his lips quirked – just the hint of an affectionate smile. “Yeah, I suppose. If nothing else, you’ll need someone on hand just to make sure you don’t ONLY take pro bono gigs.” He glanced around the lobby again, now actually trying to picture it as an actual place of employment. “I think we might get a few volunteers from the Guardians, if we pitch it to them.”

“We’re not building a business empire here,” Wes said, though his laugh took any hint of a rebuke from his words.

“Not saying we should. Just... Shouldn’t we encourage people to join in, do good for others, help out how they can?” He could think of several of the Guardians who would probably want to join in – more people meant bigger projects, or multiple ones. In its way... this could actually help more people than even the Guardians had. “Seems to me like that the kind of thing that being a Power Ranger’s all about.”

That, Wes couldn’t argue. So instead, he just pulled Eric into an embrace. “You know, that’s what I love about you, Eric. Your unparalleled optimism.”

Eric just kissed the satisfied smirk off of Wes’s face.


End file.
